Disjunctive question

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A Disjunctive question requires a short answer. Disjunctive questions are formed according to the following abstract specification: "Is X or Y the case? Is X,Y,or Z the case?". [1]


Example (1):

-Is gender or female the variable?----> Disjunctive question

Example (2):

 -Explainer: ['Black holes are so amazing', 'that when the neutron star stops', "and there's something actually there.", "There's material there.", "If it's so heavy it becomes a black hole,", 'so it keeps falling,', 'once the event horizon of the black hole forms,', 'which is the shadow,', "the curve that's so strong that not even light can escape,", 'the material keeps falling.', 'And like you said, maybe space-time breaks down', 'right at the center there, but whatever happens,', "the star's gone, that black hole is empty.", 'So in a weird way black holes are a place and not a thing.']
-Explainee: [So is there a sensible way to talk about what's inside a black hole or is that, should you think of it, as there is no space-time inside?]. ----> Disjunctive question
-Explainer: ["There isn't a sensible way to talk about it yet,", "and that probably means that's where Einstein's", 'theory of gravity as a curved space-time', 'is beginning to break down,', 'and we need to take the extra step', 'of going to some kind of quantum theory of gravity.', "And we don't have that yet.", "So even though the black hole isn't completely understood,", 'we do know that they form astronomically,', 'that in the universe things like neutron stars form', 'and things like black holes form.', 'The consequences are very much speaking', 'to this curved space-time.', 'So, for instance, if two black holes orbit each other,', "they're like mallets on a drum,", 'and they actually cause space-time to ring,', "and it's very much part of gravitation.", 'The ringing of space-time itself,', 'we call gravitational waves.', 'And this was something Einstein thought about', 'right away in 1950-1960, he was thinking about that.']
 -Explainee: ['Those waves are very exciting for me too', 'because neutron stars orbiting each other', 'also give off gravitational waves', 'and we might be able to get some data', 'about neutron star material from that kind of signal.']


Example (3):

-Explainer: [Do you know a lot about lasers? Or just about the laser that you use.] ----> Disjunctive question
-Explainee: ['Not a lot, just a little bit.']
-Explainer: ['Okay.', 'So this is about high intensity lasers.', 'Not only how do you make them,', 'but what was really stopping them being made', 'in both cases is non linear optics.', 'We wanna do something that requires', 'a huge photon density application,', "and so that's how come we came up with", 'chirped pulse amplification,', 'so that we could stretch the pulse,', 'safely amplify it, then compress it at the end,', "and then we're ready to do whatever we want at the end.", 'So what do you think the main difference is', 'between the continuous wave laser that you have', 'that runs at 10 watts and a chirped pulse amplifier?']
-Explainee: ['I feel like the continuous laser', 'delivers power at a continuous rate,', 'whereas you want all that power to be delivered', 'in a really, really short time with your amplification.']





Notes

  1. Graesser, A. C., & Person, N. K. (1994). Question asking during tutoring. American educational research journal, 31(1), 104-137.‏